This month, AST and Oracle presented a webinar that was packed with great information on cloud integration – “Oracle Integration Cloud Success”.  During this complimentary one-hour event, AST Integration Practice Director, Mrityunjay Kant and Oracle Director of Platform Products, Alakh Verma illustrated how Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) can be quickly and easily purposed to streamline a variety of business processes for your enterprise applications.  The virtual seats were packed for this event and the discussion was lively!

We are happy to announce that a recording of this webinar is now available for you to access and view at your leisure if you missed the event or if you just want to hear the information again!

Additionally, we have included here a full transcript of the question and answer session that took place at the end of the presentation.  Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in this discussion!

If you would like further information about Oracle Integration Cloud, contact AST today!

1. Does ICS support an unlimited number of connections?
   Answer:  Yes, it does support unlimited connections.

2. What are the limitations of OIC?
   Answer:  You can implement all integration use cases using OIC – cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-on-premise, etc.  OIC provides all technology adapters (REST, SOAP, Database, etc.) and application adapters to connect with most available SaaS applications and on-premise applications.  At this point, OIC does not support B2B use cases; those are supported using Oracle SOA Cloud Service.

3. Are the adaptors shown in the webinar prebuilt or custom developed?
   Answer:  All adapters shown in the demo and the use cases are available out of the box in OIC.  You can find the list of available adapters here.

4. You mentioned earlier that cloud integration could be accomplished without the need for code. Are these success stories examples of integration without any code?
   Answer:    Cloud integration can indeed be done without the need for code to be written.  The success stories covered in this webinar were examples where only available product features were used to complete cloud integration. All development is done visually using a drag-and-drop interface to connect blocks and build process flows.

5. How many OIC instances were commissioned in both use cases?
   Answer:  We have provisioned 2 instances:  Dev and Production.

6. What is the difference between SOA-CS and Oracle Integration Cloud?
   Answer: SOA-CS and OIC are aimed at fundamentally different audiences. Below are some of the differences.  AST can guide you through the process to help determine which platform would be best suited for your current and future growth needs.

7. Is what you are calling OIC the same as Oracle Autonomous Integration Cloud?
   Answer:  OIC comes in different flavors.  Oracle Autonomous Integration Cloud, Oracle Integration Cloud – Standard, and Oracle Integration Cloud – Enterprise.  AST can help you with analyzing your requirements and existing application landscape to decide which option is right for you.

8. Does OIC support Oracle Utilities Adapter and predefined integrations (C2M, MDM, etc.)?
   Answer:  OIC has an out of the box Oracle Utilities Adapter.  You can find more details here.

9. In an integration transformation, can we have multiple source and/or destination connections, or is it one-to-one?
   Answer: You can have multiple source-to-destination mappings.

10. When is the official release for OIC?
    Answer:  OIC is already under general release with the current version being 18.2.3.

11. Can we use a human workflow component in OIC and how does this compare to what is available in Oracle SOA?
    Answer:  Yes.  You can implement the workflow processes in OIC using the Process Builder. This is similar to Oracle BPMN Suite and comes with all of the features of BPMN. Oracle SOA also supports human tasks, but does not support BPMN.

12. Can the solution handle business/filter logic between systems?
    Answer:  Absolutely.  You can implement any complex business logic in the OIC integration flows.

13. How does pricing work? 
    Answer: Please refer to this link for OIC pricing details.  AST can help you analyze your requirements and help you to decide which option is right for you.

14. What are the various components of Oracle Integration Cloud?
    Answer:  OIC has the following components:  Integration, Visual Builder Cloud, Process Builder Cloud, Process Automation, and Analytics.

15. Do I need to deploy an agent to run integrations?  Does Oracle provide a run-time cloud?
    Answer:  You don’t need agents to integrate cloud-to-cloud (SaaS-to-SaaS) integrations. You need agent only when you want to integrate with an on-premise application.  For on-premise application integration, you need to install an agent inside the corporate network. This is highly secure, as there would not be any inbound connection to your network. Instead, the OIC connectivity agent connects to the OIC instance (outbound) using Oracle Messaging Cloud Service, which is bundled in an ICS subscription. You also have the option of using VPNaaS, which uses IP Sec protocol to create secure VPN tunnels.

16. What is your major differentiator from all the other integration clouds available?
    Answer: Oracle OIC is the leader in cloud middleware, as it provides:

• Out-of-the-box adapters to all SaaS and On-premise applications for native connectivity;
• Out-of-the-box adapters to most technology/protocols, such as databases (over 200 supported), file, ftp, REST, SOAP, etc.;
• Zero coding and configuration with a point-and-click user interface;
• Autonomous integration cloud, autonomous analytics cloud, and autonomous visual builder cloud, which will significantly lower your cost and risk;
• Graphical tools on cloud for covering the full lifecycle from design to monitoring;
• Easy provisioning and hosting in Oracle cloud for high reliability and availability; and
• Accelerated time to market with self-service provisioning and intuitive tools.

17. What is the OIC license model?
    Answer: Licensing is based on the number of messages/hour.  Please refer to  https://cloud.oracle.com/en_US/OIC/pricing for more details.  AST can help you analyze your requirements and help you decide which option is right for you.

18. Can I connect to Office365 or SharePoint online?
    Answer:  Yes, you can connect to Office365 and SharePoint using the OIC adapters.  The full list of supported adapters can be found here.

19. What is the comparison of Oracle Integration Cloud to the Amazon offering?
    Answer:  There is no cloud middleware (iPaaS) offering from Amazon that is comparable to OIC.

20. We have a large payload that we run on ISG. How could OIC help, with respect to volume, timing, and seamless data transmission?
    Answer:  OIC supports both real-time and batch integration of data. Please reach out to us with a more detailed use case and we can help you.

21. Is there any training offered by Oracle for cloud integration?
    Answer:  Yes.  Oracle offers training for Oracle Integration Cloud via Oracle University.  In addition, AST offers customized training content tailored for your team to get the best classroom learning experience.

22. What is the pricing structure? Do we pay by connector? Users?
    Answer:  All the out-of-the-box OIC adapters are included in the pricing and available for unlimited use.  Licensing is based on the number of messages/hour.  Please refer to https://cloud.oracle.com/en_US/OIC/pricing for more details.  AST can help you analyze your requirements and help you decide which option is right for you.

23. I presume that an integration can be written against test systems and then promoted to production. Please confirm.
    Answer:  Yes.  You can do your development in the development instance, then promote it to production.  OIC offers easy export and import options for users to migrate the code seamlessly.

24. Are there any load or capacity constraints?
    Answer:  OIC is managed by Oracle and can automatically scale up or down based on your workload.

25. Are there prebuilt functions available for Siebel?
    Answer:  Yes.  OIC integrates with the Siebel application using an out-of-the-box Siebel Adapter.

26. What are the requirements for applications to work with OIC?
    Answer: OIC supports a wide variety protocols, like REST, SOAP, Database, and others, and has out-of-the-box adapters for the most SaaS applications to natively integrate with them.  Also, the OIC application (console) is publicly accessible via any browser, such as Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer.

27. Can I get a copy of the use case and what it solved?
    Answer: Please follow this link to access the webinar recording.  If you are looking for more success stores and in-depth details, please reach out to us.

Please send additional details about OCI case studies.

28. Do Integration objects on the Cloud (SaaS) run slowly due to roundtrips on the Internet, as compared to building integration processes traditionally in-house within the company’s intranet environment?
    Answer:   In fact, it is faster than your traditional on-premise server to connect SaaS applications because of its lightweight architecture and the fact that it is hosted on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

29. How can you do custom mapping from XML to JSON?
    Answer:  OIC supports mapping between XML and JSON formats.  OIC provides a user friendly mapping tool in which users can simply drag/drop mappings, and it conceals all the complexities of the XML and JSON structures.  The OIC mapping AI engine also helps by providing automatic mapping recommendations.

30. Will Oracle Cloud Integration only works for Cloud-based Apps?
    Answer: You can implement all integration use cases using OIC – cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-on-premise, and on-premise-to-on-premise.  OIC provides all of the technology adapters (REST, SOAP, Database, etc.) and application adapters to connect with most available SaaS applications and on-premise applications.

31. Can we create new connectors based on client needs?
    Answer:  Yes, you can create custom adapters if you don’t find any out-of-the-box adapters available for you.

32. In your slides where you have Orchestration, is it BPEL in the cloud or something else?
    Answer: OIC provides multiple options to implement your integration. BPEL-like orchestration is one of its features, but it doesn’t support BPEL for orchestration.

33. What’s the average time frame for completing a moderate implementation project?
    Answer:  It depends on the number of interfaces and the complexity of the integration flows.  Implementations can range for 4-6 weeks to a couple of months, depending on the ERP or other system implementation lifecycle.  Please feel free to contact us for a consultation on your specific use case.
34. Is OIC a complete SaaS solution?
    Answer:  OIC represents a class of solutions called Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS). Most features and management of OIC are automatic, including patching.

35. Can you explain how the OIC platform helps cloud-to-cloud messages and flat file transfers?
    Answer: OIC has out-of-the-box connectors for JMS, File, and FTP adapters.  It also supports a publish-subscribe asynchronous integration pattern using Oracle cloud message service.

36. How can we replace Autosys, SFTP, Shell scripts, etc. for handling file transfers, in addition to messages?
    Answer:  OIC has out-of-the-box connectors for File and FTP adapters. It has an inbuilt easy-to-use scheduler configuration console to schedule and automatically trigger OIC interfaces.

37. I am also using Oracle BI Cloud. Right now, I am using an agent to export the report via e-mail.  Is there a way that we could export the report to SFTP instead of an email address?
    Answer:    Using OIC, you can schedule integration jobs to automatically retrieve BI reports and can push the reports to any SFTP/FTP or any hosting services.

38. I am using Oracle HCM Cloud and using Report Schedule to export the file to our SFTP. I am having the problem that for the first couple of days, the report exports the current data, and after 4-5 days, the report does not update the information anymore; they look the same for all reports. Every time, I have to delete and recreate the schedule report.
    Answer:  Using OIC, you can schedule integration jobs to automatically retrieve HCM reports and can push the reports to any SFTP/FTP or any hosting services, and archive reports. Please feel free to reach out to us for a detailed consultation.

39. We have built Oracle Finance cloud integrations with our on-premise application, using TIBCO. We perform lot of file transformation in TIBCO. Is there something your tool offers for file transformation?
    Answer: Yes.  OIC provides any-to-any format transformation and mapping.  OIC provides a user friendly mapping tool in which users can simply drag/drop mappings, and it conceals all the complexities of the File, XML and JSON structures. The OIC mapping AI engine also helps in automatic mapping recommendations.